God corrects, rebukes, chastens the true disciple of Christ by His written Word and spoken Word to our hearts. Oftentimes He will use, based on His written Word, other Christians, circumstances, other people, and more to keep us on His path.

Hebrews 12 deals with repentance and coupled with Proverbs 3:11-12 we will see three facets of godly repentance.

I. Accept His Correction Pr 3:11a, Hb 12:5c

”My son, despise not the chastening of YHWH;”

The term “chastening” in Pr 3:11a, Hb 12:5c from the Hebrew and Greek can be summed up as{1} discipline, training, training as one might a child, instruction that aims at increasing virtue, chastening, chastisement, etc.

For the latter part of these two verses there is a slight difference between the Hebrew text and the Greek text for “correction” in Proverbs and “rebuked” (NKJV) in the epistle to the Hebrews. Let’s look at “correction” in Proverbs first …

Over in the epistle where the NKJV uses “rebuked” that word is as follows:

1) to convict, refute, confute 1a) generally with a suggestion of shame of the person convicted 1b) by conviction to bring to the light, to expose 2) to find fault with, correct 2a) by word2a1) to reprehend severely, chide, admonish, reprove

The Scriptures point out two extremes in repentance, either it is despised or one becomes overly discouraged.

“My son, despise not the chastening of YHWH;”

Despised has a slight range of meaning in our compound text. For the Hebrew in Proverbs 3 it can mean to reject, refuse and to despise. The Greek in Hebrews 12 is to care little for, regard lightly, make small account.

Rejecting chastening can range from vehement refusal to accept a valid charge to a mere brushing aside, or personally justifying, it. Looking at the definitions for the Greek word in Hebrews 12 for despise, I have to think of the “cheap grace” some entertain by just thinking, “Aw, God will forgive. It is no big deal.” Listen, any and all sin, no matter if we think of it as a small sin or big sin, sent Christ to the cross.

Another ploy of the devil is to get us to think something like, “Look at all the dirt King David did, and he was forgiven.” Indeed he was forgiven, but the Holy Scriptures are quite clear the repercussions of his actions reverberated unto to his death. Besides, because Christ came, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, rose from the dead and ascended coupled with the fact we have the whole written Word of God, we have no excuse. We know better and through Christ we can do much better.

For the balance of the exhortation of the verses under discussion Proverbs has “do not be weary” while the epistle has “discouraged” (AV has “faint”).

“Do not be weary” means as follows:

to be grieved, loathe, abhor, feel a loathing or abhorrence or sickening dread 1a1) to feel a loathing at, abhor 1a2) to feel a sickening dread

In the epistle “discouraged / faint” is …

2) to dissolve, metaph., to weaken, relax, exhaust 2a) to have one’s strength relaxed, to be enfeebled through exhaustion, to grow weak, grow weary, be tired out 2b) to despond, become faint hearted

After sinning over and over again, one might be tempted to think, “What is the use? I will never be what God wants me to be.” However, carefully read the context in Hebrews 12. Our heavenly Father urges us on to perfection so that we might reign forever with Him. Most importantly, His Son paid the full penalty for our sins so we might live like Him.

Also, another tactic of the devil is for us to overly focus upon the sorrow of God or our failure. Once we bring our sins before Him and ask forgiveness it is time to press on.

II. See His Affection Pr 3:12, Hb 12:6

What we read in these passages is real love, love that cares, love that protects and nourishes.

Both Proverbs and Hebrews point out that YHWH chastens those that He loves. He is certainly not like some humans that say “kids will be kids” or that turn a blind eye at some point in raising children or justify their sinful actions.

There is a stark contrast between the ending portions of Proverbs 3:12 and Hebrews 12:6.

Proverbs 3:12– even as a father the son in whom he delights.Hebrews 12:6– and scourges every son whom he receives.

The difference is in the fact Paul was obviously directed by the Holy Spirit to quote from the Septuagint. There are times we must be scourged by Him, otherwise we will not learn our lesson well. A wise disciple pressing on to maturity will learn to avoid such situations. Nonetheless, taking these two texts together we can rejoice in the fact that God still delights in us.

III. Follow His Directions Hb 12:12-15

One great thing about the Holy Bible is that it is quite unlike much of human instruction. I do not know how many times I have been told by others as to what I cannot do yet they never told me what I could do. God’s Word is not like that. While it tells us not to do certain things it certainly tells us what we can do.

Well, we have seen from above that we are not to despise any discipline from God nor should we be discouraged by it. After remembering we are not to despise His discipline nor be discouraged ove it, erses 12 to 15 of Hebrews 12 give us powerful steps as to what we are to do.

“Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;”

Keeping in mind the context of this passage pictures us in a race, we are to strengthen our spiritual hands that hang down. It is much easier to run with our arms up and bent at the elbows. Satan would have us to be discouraged, but God wants us to be blessed with His energy provided in His Son. Physically, upon acknowledging His forgiveness we ought to raise our hands toward heaven and praise Him. When I think about the feeble knees receiving strength I have to think of prayer.

13 ”And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.”

We should be aiming to meeting Jesus. No detours allowed. Also it would be could to remove from our course any stumbling blocks. Our goal each day must be to please the Father through Christ alone.

14 ”Follow peace with all men,”

Note very carefully that the words “and holiness” immediately follow. This means the peace that we should pursue with all people must be a godly, Christ-honoring peace. This is a peace that does not tolerate sin, but deals with it through the cross of Christ.

and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

We are to have nothing to do with sin, and have everything to do with Christ every moment.

15“Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;”

We are to be diligent in our race to Christ, aiming toward our goal because of our love for Him.

{1} From an electronic version of Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance by James Strong, and so throughout this article whenever the ancient languages are mentioned.

This article is a form of a message (sermon) outline. God willing, you will find links to the actual message (sermon) sometime hopefully by March 19, 2013 at http://www.sapphirestreams.com/life/audioM.html#M236.

Unless otherwise noted, Holy Scripture is from the 1769 Authorized Version, but modified in some cases to update the language (e.g., “has” was “hath”) and to restore the Tetragrammaton in the OT as indicated.

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One Response to “Facets of Godly Repentance”

Wonderful article and explanation of God’s discipline. God does not punish but He does discipline (teach) so we will know and learn and grow in Him. The punishment will come later when we ignore the discipline and that punishment will come as the consequence of our own bad choices. That is one of our big problems, we associate the words discipline and punishment as being synonymous and they are not.